Debate reopens over Rivercrest street closures

BRADLEY OLSON, Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle |
May 11, 2009

Pressure is building on the city to reconsider the shutdown of one-way traffic to a roadway near the intersection of Westheimer and Beltway 8.

The partial closure, erected in May 2008 as a way to minimize the number of drivers cutting through the Rivercrest subdivision to reach the Sam Houston Tollway, has pitted the interests of two vocal, politically connected neighborhoods against each another.

City Councilman Peter Brown has openly questioned the outcome of the city’s decision, and a bill is advancing in the Texas Legislature that would require more public disclosure when similar traffic measures are taken in the future.

Residents upset

Residents of Briargrove Park say traffic has worsened on their streets because of the city’s decision and will become more dangerous when a major road construction project begins nearby. They plan to protest the one-way closures Wednesday.

“There was a lack of due process,” said Joanne Cassidy, a Briargrove Park resident. “There was a great deal of opposition from our neighborhood and the schools and churches here … This was done not in the public view because the city wanted to avoid public comment and the opposition, so they just did it.”

Last weekend, he took a more aggressive stance defending the city’s decision in a letter to the Houston Chronicle, saying there was a hearing in which he discussed the likely solution of “traffic calming measures” after residents in both neighborhoods spoke to City Council. The letter also stated that the city decided on the one-way closure after it lost a lawsuit brought by Rivercrest and rejected the suggestion of a mediator to close off the street completely.

White said Monday that the letter incorrectly placed the date of that council meeting at May 28, 2008, rather than the actual date of Sept. 18, 2007. He also acknowledged that the lawsuit did not require the city to choose one-way closure as a solution to the problem of cut-through traffic in Rivercrest.

When the city lost the lawsuit as a result of its own misinterpretation of the law, White said he felt “an obligation to be truthful.”

“If citizens successfully sue the city because the city is wrong in what it had told the citizens, I think it’s important that the city listen to citizens to see if there’s a legitimate way to meet a legitimate concern,” he said.

City officials said that while there was no council discussion or vote on the one-way closure, they took pains to notify residents in both neighborhoods of the proposed changes, including meetings with both groups.

They also cited a 2008 study showing an 18 percent decline in traffic from 1998 on the most heavily traveled of Briargrove Park’s streets, which they say shows Briargrove Park has not suffered from the partial closure of Rivercrest.

Misleading study?

But documents show that the traffic counters in that study are placed far enough up the road that a driver seeking to reach the Beltway could go through the neighborhood and not be counted.

A bill that would require the city to hold a hearing if it were to attempt a similar traffic measure passed almost unanimously in the Texas House and is now before a Senate committee.

Rep. Kristi Thibaut, D-Houston, who lives in Briargrove Park and sponsored the legislation, said she has been working with representatives of the city on the bill and is optimistic it will pass.

“There was no process,” she said. “The first time we knew about the closure is when it went up … My bill won’t solve this situation, but it will help other neighborhoods to ensure there’s a fair process.”